Sunday, October 31, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Michigan State has nothing left to prove against Michigan; Spartans can compete with anyone
Michigan State has nothing left to prove against Michigan; Spartans can compete with anyone
Saturday, October 09, 2010, 10:12 PM
David Mayo | The Grand Rapids Press David Mayo | The Grand Rapids Press
ANN ARBOR -- Denard Robinson hung his head, something not seen around here this season until dusk began to fall over Michigan Stadium early Saturday evening. His Heisman Trophy hopes took a kick in the ribs. The infallibility of his Michigan Wolverines vanished over the course of less than three hours.
And the State of the State became clearer than ever.
Whether Michigan State finally has transformed into a dominant college football program remains to be seen.
Whether it has transformed into the dominant team within state boundaries has not.
The Spartans’ celebration after a 34-17 victory was surprisingly muted. They didn’t sprint en masse to their tiny sliver of fans in the southwest corner of Michigan Stadium for a round of sing-song praise. They didn’t toss helmets into the night sky. They didn’t, for sure, seem particularly surprised by the events of the day.
It is a team that has grown up, in a program that isn’t far behind, and they emptied the arsenal.
They intercepted two passes in the end zone and three on the day. They did not allow Robinson to run behind their defense a single time. They ran one play in which quarterback Kirk Cousins, on an end around from a Wildcat formation with Keshawn Martin taking the snap, threw a completion that covered half the field and set up a score. They ran the ball, then ran it some more.
And when the game ended, they reunited in the locker room with their head coach, Mark Dantonio, who worked from the press box three weeks after a heart attack, and Edwin Baker said he never had seen the boss so happy.
Baker, who rushed for 147 yards, said something else, too. He said the Spartans intended to show the whole world they were going to run the football, play Big Ten football, play championship-caliber football. Then, they did. His team is 6-0. The college football world is still theirs to seize.
“When you’re a little kid, you dream of playing games like this,” Baker said. “Today, we did that, and we had fun doing it. It’s a great feeling.”
For the third consecutive year, the Spartans handled the Wolverines, the first time they achieved such a feat since 1965-67, during the final vestiges of their last era of true national prominence.
But this time was different than the last two.
The game wasn’t close. There was no substantive Michigan rally, none of that gnawing feeling that Michigan State fans get in their gut -- the one bred into their lot, a virtual DNA strand unto itself, whenever these two teams meet -- that innately tells them to await the dropping of the other shoe.
That never happened because Michigan left points on the field. Plenty of them. Just about enough to make the difference in the game.
It never happened because Michigan State took those points away, forced Robinson to beat them with his arm, then discovered what others suspected, that if you can manage all of that, the sophomore dynamo isn’t consistent enough to win just with his arm.
Michigan was gallant. For much of the first half, it controlled the action. But it couldn’t stop the long play -- Michigan State had gains of 34, 61, 41, 41, 42 and 44 yards -- and it couldn’t win on Robinson’s heroics alone.
Three years ago, after Michigan pulled out an unlikely victory in this game, Mike Hart uttered his now-regrettable remark that spotting a lead to MSU, then coming from behind to win, was kind of like toying your little brother in basketball.
Michigan hasn’t beaten Michigan State in either football or men’s basketball since then.
“My freshman year, that was probably the worst feeling, being up in the game, then losing, and the comments after the game,” Greg Jones, Michigan State’s star linebacker, said. “I don’t understand. It was probably one of the worst feelings to have. I don’t think anybody wanted to have that feeling again.”
In a matchup of undefeated and nationally ranked teams, the Spartans responded with the biggest win in this series during the Dantonio era. They underscored that they are potentially a very, very good team with a balanced offense, the capability to make timely defensive plays, and outstanding special teams.
They have built a complete team capable of competing with anyone, nationally.
Whether they actually do so, they still have a half-season, plus a bowl game, to prove.
Whether they can do so with Michigan, debate no more.
MSU's 536 yards give Michigan a reality check
MSU's 536 yards give Michigan a reality check
BY MARK SNYDER
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER
Michigan State fans slapped the edge of the Michigan Stadium bowl, drawing attention to their location.
Then, as fans filed through the concourse after the Spartans’ 34-17 win over U-M on Saturday, the MSU faithful unfurled a green-and-white banner: “Little brother beat your a—again”
With the win marking three straight for the Spartans for the first time since 1965-67, there was more than the usual first-loss pain among the Wolverines.
“It does count a little bit more than one because it is Michigan State,” Michigan junior receiver Darryl Stonum said. “To us, it counts more than one, but on the record board it still counts as one. We’re still in the hunt for the Big Ten championship, and our goals are still alive.”
After Saturday, though, those goals may have to be re-evaluated.
Reality struck hard for the vaunted U-M offense and QB Denard Robinson.
The sophomore Heisman candidate exceeded his season’s total of mistakes, with three interceptions, little of his patented running burst and more than a few poor throws that cost potential touchdowns.
Adding to his receivers’ drops and lack of sustained tailback production, the season’s safety valve — a steamroller offense — wasn’t there.
“We made too many mistakes against a good team to win today,” coach Rich Rodriguez said. “We were just a little bit off, not only in the pass game, but the run game as well. Sometimes that happens and you’ve got to be able to overcome it with another big play offensively or a big play on special teams or a turnover on defense.
Something like that. (But) none of those things occurred today.”
The defense was as destructive as ever, allowing 536 yards of offense, the fifth-worst single-game performance in program history.
But this wasn’t even the methodical pounding put on by previous opponents. The big play scorched these Wolverines (5-1, 1-1 Big Ten).
They allowed five plays of more than 40 yards, including two rushing touchdowns (one for 61 yards, one for 41) and three passes (a 41-yarder that burned freshman Cullen Christian, then a 43-yard flea-flicker that set up their fourth touchdown midway through the fourth quarter and a 45-yarder to Mark Dell, getting to the Michigan 2).
The question now: How will the Wolverines react?
A close loss in East Lansing started last year’s downward spiral in the Big Ten season. This year’s decisive loss, with Iowa coming to Ann Arbor next week, puts U-M in a tenuous position.
“It’s very hard, it’s my last year, I don’t get another chance,” U-M tight end Martell Webb said. “You can’t dwell on the past. You’ve got to focus on Iowa.”
MSU won at point of attack
MSU won at point of attack
BY DREW SHARP
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER
This will not sit well in Ann Arbor.
And it shouldn’t.
Michigan State has surpassed Michigan in football.
The indisputable evidence of this stunning transition lies in the tread marks stretched across the backs of a Michigan team not just humbled Saturday, but pummeled.
Had the Spartans survived a high-flying, scoreboard-tiring shootout on the game’s final drive, it might be more easily acceptable as a memorable classic that somebody had to lose. But this was a philosophy that triumphed.
Daring is necessary. Speed is an absolute in football, but nothing can replace the basic credo of physically winning at the point of attack.
Michigan got a harsh reminder that it cannot sustain success in the Big Ten through finesse. There inevitably comes a time when either you smack the guy lined up across from you in the mouth or you stand there and get smacked yourself.
Michigan exhibited a glass chin Saturday.
Don’t talk to me about the last 30 years. All that matters are the three years under Rich Rodriguez, and he’s now 0-3 against the Spartans. It’s the first time that the Spartans have won three straight against their primary rival since 1967 in the closing years of the Bump Elliott era when the Wolverines often played before a half-empty Michigan Stadium.
Sparty rules the state for the time being.
One of the MSU assistant coaches told me following the game that it was as though destiny had smiled upon this team considering the tribulations they’ve endured the last three weeks. They’ve played at an incredibly high level since head coach Mark Dantonio’s mild heart attack following the Notre Dame overtime victory.
The stakes increase for them now. They travel to Iowa in two weeks in the game that will determine Ohio State’s most serious challenger for the Big Ten championship.
The Spartans are now officially bowl eligible at 6-0. They’ve guaranteed themselves a trip to Ford Field and the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl at the very least already, but nothing short of nine wins now is acceptable considering what they’ve accomplished and the fact that their schedule doesn’t include the soon-to-be No. 1 ranked Buckeyes.
Dantonio always preached that he envisioned a program that would intimidate instead of being the intimidated.
It was Michigan that looked scared Saturday, a feeling never more accurately applied than when Rodriguez opted to punt the ball trailing 17 points with around six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
It made no sense trusting a defense that had proven itself incapable of standing up to Michigan State’s dominating offensive line. Rodriguez acknowledged afterward that he probably made a mistake in not trusting his team’s lone strength – its offense.
The Wolverines’ season is far from over although they’re probably the unhappiest 5-1 team in the country because they believed the national hype that Superman was their quarterback. But Michigan State just gave every future Michigan opponent the blueprint for defending Denard Robinson – a physical defensive front and linebackers who smartly didn’t over-pursue Robinson, staying in their lanes and waiting for him to come to them.
This loss will sting for awhile. Someone draped a banner outside Michigan Stadium following the game that read “Little Brother Just Kicked Your (Butt) Again.”
Little brother hasn’t just grown up. It’s passed big brother.
BY DREW SHARP
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER
And it shouldn’t.
Michigan State has surpassed Michigan in football.
The indisputable evidence of this stunning transition lies in the tread marks stretched across the backs of a Michigan team not just humbled Saturday, but pummeled.
Had the Spartans survived a high-flying, scoreboard-tiring shootout on the game’s final drive, it might be more easily acceptable as a memorable classic that somebody had to lose. But this was a philosophy that triumphed.
Daring is necessary. Speed is an absolute in football, but nothing can replace the basic credo of physically winning at the point of attack.
Michigan got a harsh reminder that it cannot sustain success in the Big Ten through finesse. There inevitably comes a time when either you smack the guy lined up across from you in the mouth or you stand there and get smacked yourself.
Michigan exhibited a glass chin Saturday.
Don’t talk to me about the last 30 years. All that matters are the three years under Rich Rodriguez, and he’s now 0-3 against the Spartans. It’s the first time that the Spartans have won three straight against their primary rival since 1967 in the closing years of the Bump Elliott era when the Wolverines often played before a half-empty Michigan Stadium.
Sparty rules the state for the time being.
One of the MSU assistant coaches told me following the game that it was as though destiny had smiled upon this team considering the tribulations they’ve endured the last three weeks. They’ve played at an incredibly high level since head coach Mark Dantonio’s mild heart attack following the Notre Dame overtime victory.
The stakes increase for them now. They travel to Iowa in two weeks in the game that will determine Ohio State’s most serious challenger for the Big Ten championship.
The Spartans are now officially bowl eligible at 6-0. They’ve guaranteed themselves a trip to Ford Field and the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl at the very least already, but nothing short of nine wins now is acceptable considering what they’ve accomplished and the fact that their schedule doesn’t include the soon-to-be No. 1 ranked Buckeyes.Dantonio always preached that he envisioned a program that would intimidate instead of being the intimidated.
It was Michigan that looked scared Saturday, a feeling never more accurately applied than when Rodriguez opted to punt the ball trailing 17 points with around six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
It made no sense trusting a defense that had proven itself incapable of standing up to Michigan State’s dominating offensive line. Rodriguez acknowledged afterward that he probably made a mistake in not trusting his team’s lone strength – its offense.
The Wolverines’ season is far from over although they’re probably the unhappiest 5-1 team in the country because they believed the national hype that Superman was their quarterback. But Michigan State just gave every future Michigan opponent the blueprint for defending Denard Robinson – a physical defensive front and linebackers who smartly didn’t over-pursue Robinson, staying in their lanes and waiting for him to come to them.
This loss will sting for awhile. Someone draped a banner outside Michigan Stadium following the game that read “Little Brother Just Kicked Your (Butt) Again.”
Little brother hasn’t just grown up. It’s passed big brother.
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